1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to delivery and retrieval of messages, for example, voice/video/text mail messages, from/to mobile (wireless) telephones/handsets using a data network. In particular, the present invention relates to delivery and retrieval of such messages from/to mobile handsets using an Internet Protocol (IP) data network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a mobile telephone establishes a telephone call to a voice messaging system to deposit or retrieve (listen to) voice messages via a circuit-switched telephone network, such as (without limitation) one or more wireless telephone networks, long-distance telephone networks, the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or the Personal Communications Service (PCS). The typical mobile telephone systems require the subscriber/user to access the message system through the circuit-switched telephone network for either deposit/retrieval of messages, which may not be cost efficient if, for example, the caller does not have waiting/unread messages. Further, in the typical wireless telephone system if the handset is out of radio range, the user can neither call nor leave messages for the target recipient.
In contrast to traditional phones, mobile phones are becoming small personal computing devices or computers by having more processing power and functionality. In particular, mobile handsets can now also communicate to a packet-switched data network, such as (without limitation) the Internet or another public or private local area or wide area data network. The data networks can use, for example, the Internet Protocol (IP), such as the Internet. Some of the advantages of the data network are: (1) connections via a packet-switched data network can be more reliable than connections via the circuit-switched telephone network; (2) data network connections cost less than the switched telephone network; and (3) a data network provides more flexibility in managing messaging.
Therefore, mobile phone messaging via the data network can be more flexible and cost efficient. In particular, mobile phone messaging via a data network using IP, such as the Internet, can be more flexible and cost efficient.